Davey Valleau: A life well lived

Routine road inspection ends in tragedy for logging family

Davey Valleau, on bench with his wife Dianne, surround by the family he loved.

By Cindy FIlipenko

A routine trip to inspect a forestry road ended in tragedy
April 27 for one of the Sea to Sky corridor’s most established logging
families. Davey Valleau, 63, died as the result of a single vehicle accident on
South Creek Forestry Road.

Valleau was reported missing at 1:30 a.m. on April 27 after he
failed to return home. Members of the logger’s family, RCMP and Tribal Police,
undertook the subsequent search. When their efforts failed to locate Valleau’s
vehicle, the Pemberton RCMP called in Search and Rescue. The driverless vehicle
was discovered off a steep embankment. At approximately 5 p.m. Valleau’s body
was found on land approximately 1 km from where the accident occurred.

Those are the cold facts.

Beyond those facts is the story of the son of one of Whistler’s
pioneering loggers. A man who worked tirelessly to sustain a family business
that proved itself to be more than just another logging company. A man
described as honest, caring and quick-witted. A man who will be greatly missed.

“He always worked his tail off, loved having family and friends
around and spent much of his time pensively squatting in the yard. From what I
know and understand, he was very tough but fair in work as he was in life.
Everyone that he has worked with holds the utmost respect for him and all speak
very highly of him,” said his son Dave.

One of those men is Stu McNulty.

McNulty worked for Valleau Logging for 30 years and knew Davey
for close to 40. McNulty started out working for Davey’s dad, Laurence, in the
’60s when Whistler was still known as Alta Lake. He stayed with the company
when it shifted its base to Pemberton in 1973 and Davey and his brother Rick
took over.

“Working for the Valleaus, basically it was one extended family
— the whole crew. That’s how his dad was and when he and his brother took over,
it was how they were.”

According to his son, Pete, Davey had been paying into WCB
since he was 15 years old. Asked if his dad had been close to retiring, Pete
laughed, the idea of his dad quitting forestry obviously inconceivable — it was
in his blood. Pete’s brother Dave, concurred.

“I first started working for my grandfather, Laurence, in the
bush when I was about 13 years old for $12 per hour. The first thing my dad did
the following summer when he took over after my grandfather retired was drop my
wages down to $10 an hour thinking my grandfather was being too generous in his
old age — which he probably was.